Honorary Medal for Michael Reth

The molecular immunologist Prof. Dr. Michael Reth, spokesperson for the Cluster of Excellence BIOSS Centre for Biological Signalling Studies (BIOSS) at the University of Freiburg and group leader at the Max Planck Institute of Immunobiology and Epigenetics (MPI-IE), will receive the Honorary Medal 2017 of the Signal Transduction Society (STS). He is distinguished for his pioneering work on the structure and signaling function of the B cell antigen receptor. The receptor on the surface of B cells in the immune system recognizes foreign matter, so-called antigens, which trigger the body’s immune system. Reth has proposed a new model of B cell activation and developed techniques for a better analysis of the nanoscale organization of receptors on the B cell surface. The medal will be awarded at the STS 21st annual meeting on November 9th in Weimar, Germany.

The STS was founded in 1998 as a joint endeavor by the chairs of signaling study groups of the German Societies for Immunology (DGFI) and Cell Biology (DGZ) and the Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (GBM) to promote the interdisciplinary exchange between scientists of various fields. Since 2010, it has awarded the Honorary Medal annually to outstanding scientists for achievements in deciphering signaling processes in normal and transformed cells.

Michael Reth has been a professor for molecular immunology at the University of Freiburg since 1995. In 2014, he received the Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize and in 2015 the Jürgen Manchot research professorship for experimental infection medicine.

Signal Transduction Society
www.sigtrans.de